Lost Memories
by Jess the Hetalian Eevee
Summary: Antonio and Arthur are best friends. They've been that way for a while now, and neither one of them could imagine what it'd be like without the other. But one day, everything changes when Arthur loses his memory. Short story written for LA class and uploaded because I think this place will appreciate it more than my LA teacher :P One-shot, by the way,


**A/N: Yeah... I'm back from the dead! I need to apologize to everyone for disappearing for two weeks. After the New Year, I decided I should really do my project. And basically, it took up like, all of my time. Then, as soon as I got back to school, I got bombarded with assignments and projects DX I got some time free, so I decided to post this. Anyways, I'm sorry! Please forgive me!**

**This was a "short story" I wrote for LA class last week (yeah... last week -_-). We weren't supposed to use any existing characters, but I was just like "screw it, the teacher'll never know". And thus, this was born.**

**It's pretty much a long one-shot. Spuk, maybe, but it's more of a friendship fic. I am aware that Iggy and Spain don't actually like each other, but I had to change it a little for this. I don't ship Spuk either, btw, but, again, it fit.**

**Enjoy~**

* * *

The afternoon of July 10 was just like any other day. The sky was lustrous and bright, birds were singing happily like they didn't have a care in the world, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It would have been a perfect day if it wasn't for the heat. The scorching sun seemed intent on burning everything its light fell on, regardless of who or what it was. This included two teenage boys hiding beneath the shade of a large oak tree.

The first boy, a Spanish teen named Antonio, had curly chocolate-brown hair and a happy grin on his face. He ran a hand through his hair, leaning back against the tree. His bright green eyes practically sparkled as he said something to the other boy.

Arthur, the other teenager, rolled his eyes. Arthur's eyes were green as well, but they were much different from Antonio's. While Antonio's eyes reflected the colour of green grass, Arthur's were a deep emerald green that glimmered with specks of silver. Their eyes were the only thing the two had in common. Arthur had blonde hair that contrasted with Antonio's dark locks. While Antonio always had a smile on his face, Arthur was never seen without a scowl. But most of all, Arthur had these bushy eyebrows that sat on his forehead like fuzzy caterpillars. And Antonio never hesitated to tease him about them.

"Hey, Arturo, aren't you hot? I mean, your eyebrows look really warm…" Antonio teased.

Arthur glared at him. "My eyebrows are_ fine_! And of course I'm hot! It's bloody 40 degrees out! Why are we even outside?!"

Antonio laughed. "You wanted to, Arturo. But if it's bothering you that much, we might as well leave."

Arthur nodded, and the two left the shade of the tree and set off towards Antonio's house. This day seemed like a perfectly normal day… Neither one of them knew about the misfortune that was about to befall them.

The two's sneakers pounded on the asphalt as they crossed a road. Antonio suddenly stopped.

"Hey, Arturo?" he asked. "How long have we been friends?"

"Eh?" Arthur turned around. He hesitated a second, before replying, "About… six years, I think. Why?"

Antonio smiled. "We've been friends for a while, huh?" he mused, not answering Arthur's question.

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and we were bitter enemies before that. How on Earth did I end up being friends with you?" He turned back around and continued walking.

Antonio laughed and was about to follow Arthur when he saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye.

A car.

Everything seemed to slow down as Antonio lunged forward, desperately trying to grab Arthur's hand, pull him out of the way. But Arthur was just barely out of reach. Antonio cried out Arthur's name. Arthur turned around slightly, his eyes flashing gold in the sunlight. And then…

And then the beautiful day became twisted. The car smashed into Arthur, sending his body flying. Everything turned red.

"ARTHUR!"

* * *

_Thud._ Antonio's eyes snapped open. _What happened?_ Antonio thought. He rubbed his eyes. Then he remembered. The man who'd hit Arthur called an ambulance, and Antonio went with the ambulance to the hospital. He'd been sitting in the waiting room for several hours… And then he'd fallen asleep. Antonio sighed. He hadn't gotten any news on Arthur for ages. But then he saw the woman standing in front of him.

"Mr. Antonio?" It was a nurse.

"What is it?" Antonio asked, sitting up immediately. "What's happened to Arthur? He's not… he isn't…?" Antonio couldn't finish the sentence. He just didn't want to think about it.

The nurse smiled. "No, nothing like that. I just wanted to let you know that Mr. Arthur is now in a relatively stable condition. It will probably be another month or so before he recovers, but I thought I should notify you."

Antonio almost cried with relief. "Arthur's okay? Then… can I see him?"

The nurse sighed. "Unfortunately, that isn't possible. He hit his head quite hard, and he is in a coma. The doctors want to keep an eye on him in case his condition worsens. Why don't you just head home and eat something? You've been here for quite a while."

"No!" Antonio yelled, shaking his head. "I can't just go home now! I'll go crazy not knowing what's going on!"

"So you want to stay here for a month?" the nurse asked. "It would be best if you did leave. You won't be helping Mr. Kirkland by worrying about him. If you are really worried, then how about we call you if anything happens. Would you like that?" When Antonio nodded, she smiled at him. "Then could you please come with me?" As Antonio stood up to follow the kind nurse, there was only one thought going through his head.

_Thank god Arthur's alive._

* * *

It'd been a little over a month and Arthur had finally recovered. He'd woken up from his coma, and all his injuries had healed. Today, August 15, Arthur was finally being released from the hospital. Antonio was ecstatic.. Now everything would be fine. He sprinted through the halls of the hospital. He bumped into a few things, but Antonio didn't care. His only goal was to get to the room where his best friend was.

At last, Antonio reached the room. He burst through the doors. And there, in front of him was the person who had narrowly escaped death. Who'd been by Antonio's side for six whole years. Arthur.

Antonio immediately jumped towards Arthur, enveloping him in a huge hug. "Arturo! It's nice to see you again!" he laughed.

But instead of hugging back, or being his usual grumpy self, Arthur pushed Antonio off him. "What was that for? And who the heck are you?" Arthur glared at Antonio.

Antonio gasped. "Arthur? It's me, Antonio! You know, your friend?" Antonio asked hesitantly. Before Arthur could reply, a doctor spoke up.

"Mr. Antonio? Did no one tell you about Mr. Arthur?" he asked.

"No? The last thing I heard about Arturo was that he was being released." Antonio replied.

The doctor sighed. "Your friend here... he was hit by a car, correct?" he asked. Antonio nodded, and the doctor continued. "Well... he hit his head on the pavement. And we suspect that he suffered memory loss due to the impact."

Antonio felt like everything had broken. Again. "What?" he asked. "Why… why didn't anyone tell me about this?"

"We thought it would be better to tell you in person. We would also like to request your help to restore his memory. Is that alright?" the doctor asked.

Antonio nodded. "Of course! Arturo needs his memory back for sure! I'll do whatever I can!"

"Good. You can start by taking Mr. Arthur to his house. It seems he does not remember where it is." The doctor then handed Antonio a business card. "By the way, I'm Doctor Edelstein. If something comes up, you can reach me with that number. Goodbye, now."

"Gracias," Antonio thanked. Then he turned to Arthur. "Come on, Arturo! Let's go!" Antonio held out his hand towards Arthur. The blonde teen looked unsure, but after a moment, he took Antonio's hand and followed him out the room.

* * *

A short walk later, and the two were now sitting in Arthur's living room. Arthur was currently sweeping his eyes over the room, taking in everything. Antonio just sat and watched him in silence, trying to think of a way to cure Arthur's amnesia.

Suddenly, Arthur spoke up. "So… this is my house? It's a nice house…"

Antonio laughed. "Of course it looks pretty to you, it's your house. But my house is much prettier!"

Arthur looked at Antonio skeptically. "Right…" he sighed. "By the way, I hate to ask, but who exactly are you? I really don't remember anything…"

Antonio froze. That was right, this Arthur wasn't the one he knew. This Arthur didn't know him. Antonio smiled a small smile. "Ah, that's right. I never introduced myself, did I? I'm Antonio. We were… best friends, I suppose. Although we were rivals before that." Antonio paused. Hadn't he been having this conversation with Arthur on that day he got hit? He shook his head, before continuing. "We were friends for, uh, about six years. I think you told me that yourself, Arturo."

"Okay," Arthur nodded. Then he asked another question. "Why do you keep calling me Arturo? My name is Arthur."

"Arturo is the Spanish equivalent to Arthur," Antonio explained. "I'm Spanish, so it's a bit of a habit to call you Arturo. If you don't want me to, I'll stop."

"No, that's fine," Arthur replied. "So… have you thought of any way to cure this… amnesia?"

"Oh, yes! I thought of one way" Antonio jumped up, his eyes sparkling brightly. "Come with me!" Antonio then proceeded to drag Arthur outside. "Can you wait here for a second? I'll be right back!" Antonio disappeared back into the house before Arthur could say anything. A moment later, he reappeared, carrying several soccer balls, basketballs, and volleyballs with him.

"Uh… what are you doing with those?" Arthur asked.

"You'll see!" Antonio smiled cheerfully. Then he picked up one of the basketballs… and threw it at Arthur's face.

It hit him right in the face.

"Ow! What the heck do you think you're doing?!" Arthur yelled, rubbing his head.

"It's okay~ I've seen this in cartoons and comics before! To cure someone with amnesia, you just need to hit them on the head hard enough! Usually some kind of ball works!"

"What?! But those are cartoons! It's not going to-" Arthur's yelling was cut off by another basketball smacking him in the forehead.

"It's fine! No hay problema! Calm down, Arturo!" Antonio called out cheerfully, throwing more basketballs at the blonde-haired boy.

"Hey - no - stop! An - HEY!" Arthur managed to say between getting hit in the face.

Suddenly, the bombardment of basketballs stopped. Arthur looked over to where Antonio was standing. "Oh, I'm out of basketballs…" Antonio mumbled, more to himself.

"Good!" Arthur panted. "Then we can-" he was cut off by a soccer ball nailing him in his face.

"Well, I guess I'll have to use soccer balls then!" Antonio sang happily. And that's where Arthur's real problems began…

A dozen soccer balls and volleyballs later, Arthur was lying on his back in the grass, panting heavily and wincing from pain. Antonio was standing over him.

"So, Arturo? Have you remembered anything?" Antonio asked.

Arthur glared at him. "I haven't remembered anything, but I've definitely learned something. You are a bloody idiot."

Antonio's face fell. "You don't remember anything?"

Arthur sighed, exasperated. "How the heck would chucking balls at me help?! All it did was hurt!"

Antonio smiled sadly. "Lo siento…" he apologized. "Maybe I was trying to convince myself more than anything…" he helped Arthur, and looked at Arthur again. "Well, maybe one good thing's come out of this."

"Huh?" Arthur asked.

"You're acting more like the Arthur I knew. More grumpy, si?" Antonio grinned.

Arthur stuck his tongue out. "Hey, if I have to go to the hospital, you have to pay for my hospital bills!"

And even though Antonio was laughing on the outside, in his heart, he wasn't really that happy._ Arthur… you will get your memory back, right?_

* * *

In the days that followed, Antonio began visiting Arthur every day. Sometimes he'd bring food with him, such as churros or paella. Other times, Antonio would bring things from his house that had the chance of triggering some memory hidden in Arthur's brain. And sometimes it would work. Arthur would remember a little piece of something. They were mostly useless things, such as the name of one of their teachers, or a mark he'd gotten on some exam. But these things gave Antonio hope. Hope that maybe, one day, Arthur would remember everything.

Today was no different.

"Arturo! It's me! Can I come in?" Antonio called.

"Yeah, it's unlocked!" Arthur called back. Antonio strided into the living room. "Hey!" Arthur protested. "Wipe your feet before you come in! I don't want you getting my floors dirty!"

Antonio pouted. "It's not muddy or wet or anything outside! And I stayed on the sidewalk the whole time!"

"No excuses. Go wipe your feet," Arthur commanded. Antonio sighed and went back over to the door. When he came back, Arthur asked, "So, what did you bring today?"

"Ah, just some tomatoes! They just ripened!" Antonio replied proudly, handing one to Arthur.

Arthur hesitantly took the red fruit in his hand and looked it over. "Just ripened? Did you grow these yourself?"

Antonio nodded. "Yeah! I have a small tomato garden on my balcony. You… you've seen it before," he pointed out hopefully, just in case Arthur remembered something.

"No… sorry, I don't remember," Arthur stated, biting into the tomato. Suddenly, he spit it out. "Ugh! This tastes terrible! Are you trying to poison me?!"

Antonio laughed. "No, I'm not! I'd never poison one of my precious tomatoes! See?" he took a bite out of another tomato. "You didn't like tomatoes before. Well, you still don't. I was just curious. I thought maybe you'd like them now, since you lost your memory, but I guess not."

Arthur glared at the Spanish teen. "Well, I definitely hate tomatoes. Now I remember that." Suddenly, Arthur realized something. "Hey! You knew, and you still gave me one?!" he threw his tomato at Antonio. It hit him in the arm.

"Hey!" Antonio cried, scooping up the tomato. "You shouldn't waste tomatoes! It's not gentlemanly of you at all!"

"Gentlemanly?" Arthur asked, confused.

"Yeah," Antonio nodded. "You used to always say that you were a 'gentleman'. Although you weren't really."

"Well, that seems like me. And I probably was a gentleman, you know. You probably just couldn't tell." Arthur stated smugly. All of a sudden, his face fell. "Hey… Antonio? I appreciate you trying to help me regain my memory but…"

"But what?" Antonio asked.

"But… I… I just can't remember anything. Not anything of value, anyways. Who cares about this A+ I got on the final exam? I don't remember a thing about you or anyone else I know! What's the point of this? I'm just being a burden to you…"

Antonio suddenly lunged forwards and grabbed Arthur's shoulders, not even caring about the tomatoes. "Arthur! Don't say things like that! Even if you remember only the tiniest, most insignificant thing, you're still remembering something! It'll just probably take longer to remember the bigger things. You're recovering. This isn't a waste of time, okay?"

Arthur still looked unsure. "If you say so…"

Antonio sighed. "Well, maybe we need a change of location…" he thought for a moment, and then spoke up again. "I know! You should come over to my house! You can stay overnight, too. Maybe that will help!"

"Well… I'll try it…" Arthur mumbled.

Antonio grinned brightly. "Great! You know the streets well enough, right?" When Arthur nodded, he continued. "Okay! My house is 801 Pomodoro Street. It's three blocks away from here. You can come over tomorrow. Is that okay?"

Arthur nodded again. "It's not like I have anything else to do. Tomorrow is fine."

"Then it's settled!" Antonio cheered, jumping up. "If it's okay with you, I'm going to go home now. I need to prepare some things for tomorrow!" he scooped up the tomatoes, and walked over to the door.

"Bye," Arthur waved.

"¡Adiós!" Antonio called back as he ran out the door. He grinned as he sprinted down the streets. _This will definitely work,_ he thought. _Arthur will get his memory back for sure._

* * *

Arthur's shoes thudded against the sidewalk as he walked to Antonio's house. He turned a left, and then stopped. In front of him was a small white house.

"So this is Antonio's house?" Arthur mused. It felt familiar, but different at the same time. "Have I been here before? Well, I probably have, but I just don't remember it… Ah, whatever. I should knock, I guess…" Arthur rang the doorbell.

Within a few seconds, Antonio had appeared in the doorway. Wearing a yellow apron. "Arthur! ¡Bienvenido!" Antonio welcomed. "Come in!"

"Uh…" Arthur silently walked into the house, surprised. "What's with the apron?" he asked.

"Oh, this?" Antonio looked down at the apron. "I was just making some food! I always wear this when I'm cooking!"

"I see…" Arthur replied, looking around Antonio's house. It really was nice.

Antonio smiled. "Well, I'm not quite done. You can head up to my room for now. You can also set up your things while you're at it. It's the first door on the right!"

Arthur nodded and went upstairs. He walked into Antonio's room. It was a perfectly normal room, not covered with pictures of tomatoes like Arthur had suspected it might be.

"I don't know what I was thinking..." Arthur sighed, setting his bag down. "But I thought Antonio's room would be messy or something. Not perfectly tidy like this…"

Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur noticed a flash of light. "What's this?" he asked, walking over to Antonio's desk. On it sat a book. Arthur picked it up. "Album…?" he read. "Antonio has a photo album? Well, I guess he seems like the type to have one..."

Arthur opened the album to the first page. Pictures of a little Antonio filled the paper. There were crayon marks, adding bursts of colour to the snow-white pages.

"Preschool," Arthur read, smiling. "Cute…"

Arthur flipped forward. On every single page, there were pictures of Antonio. Antonio on his first day of school, Antonio playing soccer, Antonio playing the guitar...

Arthur sighed. Why was he even going through the photo album? It wasn't his to look at. But obviously Antonio wasn't going to come upstairs any time soon…

Arthur turned to the very last page.

He almost dropped the book.

There, on the final page of the album, was a picture of him and Antonio. Antonio had his arm draped around Arthur's shoulders, and Antonio was grinning happily. Arthur, on the other hand, wore a scowl, but there was a hint of a smile behind the scowl.

Arthur gasped. Where was this from? He struggled to remember. It was in the spring… no, the summer. Where were they when the picture was taken? And why was this in the photo album? It must have been something significant… A fuzzy picture was slowly being pieced together in Arthur's mind, like a puzzle, but Arthur was missing too many of the pieces to complete it. Arthur flipped the pages, hoping for another hint.

The pages closer to the back were all covered in pictures as well. However, this time, they were all pictures of Arthur, or Antonio and Arthur. A picture of Arthur standing in the middle of a room that was covered in streamers and balloons. A picture of Antonio and Arthur hoisting up a trophy, victorious grins on their faces. A picture of Antonio with a tomato plushie on his head, smiling happily, while the Arthur in the picture was rolling his eyes.

Arthur flipped through the pages, faster and faster, as if he was trying to win a race. Every picture filled in more of the puzzle, but there was one missing piece. Arthur just couldn't find the missing piece. It was hidden too well…

Then Arthur's eyes fell on a certain picture.

This one had obviously been taken with a cell phone, as the quality of the image was terrible. Arthur studied it carefully. Why had Antonio chosen this picture, when he probably had much higher-quality ones to pick from? In the image, Antonio wasn't smiling a happy grin like in all the other pictures. Antonio had a small smile on his face. His face was bruised and bloody, with multiple cuts framing his face. Arthur could barely make out tears in Antonio's eyes. And Arthur? The Arthur in the photo was looking down dejectedly, one of his hands covering a cut on his forehead._ Did Antonio beat me up?_ Arthur asked himself. But upon close inspection, Arthur could see a small smile on the Arthur in the picture's face. Why was he smiling?

And then it hit him. The memory played in his head like a movie.

_"They're gone now. We're fine." Antonio had said._

_"You… I…" Arthur had stammered._

_"Hey, you should thank me! I fought them off!" Antonio had stuck out his tongue. "Well… do you want to be friends? I know we hate each other but, after this…"_

_Arthur had smiled. "Sure."_

And then all the other memories fell into place. Tears streamed down Arthur's face. Finally… he remembered.

"Arturo?" Just then, Antonio appeared in the doorway. Upon seeing the tears, he dashed over. "Arthur! You're crying!"

"I…" Arthur looked into Antonio's eyes. "Antonio. I… remember."

"What?" Antonio asked, shocked. "How?" Arthur pointed to the picture, and Antonio smiled knowingly. "Ah… it's from when we became friends. That's what caused you to remember?"

When Arthur nodded, Antonio immediately pulled him into a tight hug. "Thank god… Finally…" he mumbled.

"I'm sorry," Arthur replied. "I… I won't forget again."

"Promise?" Antonio asked, his green eyes sparkling.

Arthur nodded. "Promise."

* * *

Less than a week later, and Antonio and Arthur were finally back at school. It was just like any other day... and it was going to stay that way this time.

"Argh... why do I have to be here..." Arthur complained. "I wasted most of my summer! I should get it back!"

Antonio laughed. "But it wouldn't be the same without you! You need to be here!"

"Say what you want, I just don't want to be here," Arthur replied. Suddenly, Antonio grabbed Arthur's hand.

"Hey! What the heck do you think you're doing?!" Arthur protested, trying to pull his hand away.

"Come on, Arturo!" Antonio grinned, dashing forwards. "We don't want to be late!"

"Hey! Let go of me!" Arthur yelled.

"Let's go!" Antonio cheered.

_Finally… things were back to normal again._

* * *

**A/N: It was longer... but I took out a few things to make it around 7 pages instead of 8 :P**

**Austria was originally the doctor and Monaco was originally the nurse, but I removed them and made the characters nameless. They were really OOC, anyways.**

**This has a few references to Kagerou Project, specifically Kagerou Days. For one thing, August 15 :P The date when Iggy got hit was originally August 15, but I changed it so that he'd have time to recover. August 15th is instead when Iggy got released from the hospital, which kinda isn't the point, but whatever.**

**Also, Iggy originally got hit by a TRUCK. But then I changed it into a car because it seemed like it would hurt a little less XD. Dunno how much less, but whatever.**

**About Chara Song Recording, it will be continued starting hopefully Friday, unless I get more assignments -_- Sorry to keep you all waiting!**

**So, I'll see you all then, I guess! Hasta la pasta!**


End file.
